It’s the final day of the tournament and there’s one game; the biggest game in world football. Re-read how Portugal and Italy reached the World Cup Final.

World Cup Final: Portugal V Italy

The current European champions take on the four-time winners on a warm, windy day in Moscow. The last three World Cup Finals have required extra time to settle the argument, with the previous two seeing no goals scored in normal time. The Final follows the pattern of the last two, with neither side able to find a goal. Ten minutes into extra time, there’s a goal; Portugal’s talisman Cristiano Ronaldo puts the European champions twenty minutes away from their first ever World Cup and the completion of a European/World Cup double. Italy go in desperate search of an equaliser and get one with eight minutes to go as Andrea Belotti pulls the Italians level. The seconds and minutes tick away and it’s going to penalties, something that the Italians have fond memories of from the 2006 World Cup Final. 120 minutes are on the clock and the referee is checking his watch. Italy have one final chance to win the game without requiring penalties and it falls to Belotti. He scores! In the final minute of extra time! Portuguese players slump to the floor, whilst the Italian team pile on to Belotti as the bench erupts. The game kicks off after fairly lengthy Italian celebrations, but Portugal have no chance to equalise and force penalties. Italy are champions of the world for the fifth time.

The penultimate day of the tournament sees one game; re-read how Belgium and South Korea ended up in the penultimate match.

Third Place Playoff – Belgium V South Korea

Both sides need to pick themselves up after a two-goal Semi Final loss. The Third Placed Playoff is often described as the game that no-one want to be in and for Vincent Kompany, he’s only involved for three minutes before injury forces him to leave the field. Belgium shrug off the loss of Kompany and take the lead through Yannick Carrasco with 26 minutes on the clock. Belgium don’t add to their lead in the first half, but maintain it going into the break. They double the lead within a minute of the second half kicking off; Carrasco adds his and Belgium’s second. The situation is looking desperate for South Korea, but looks to become impossible in the 74th minute when Mousa Dembele adds Belgium’s third goal. Thomas Vermaelen is sent off in the 75th minute in another blow to the Belgium defence, but the ten men see out the victory to claim third place.

The end of another season approaches. As always, some clubs have fallen below expectations, whilst others have surely exceeded the expectations of even their most optimistic supporters. Replay the 2017/18 with one of the eleven clubs below and see if you can meet the expectations of some clubs or match the achievements of others.

Barcelona

There are currently three games of La Liga left. Barcelona have won 26 and drawn nine. Will you be able to replicate such form in the league and achieve an unbeaten season? Throwing in a Champions League title (or at least stopping Real Madrid) would be an added bonus

Burnley

Burnley were amongst the favourites to be relegated at the start of the season. To say they’ve avoided relegation comfortably is a bit of an understatement as European football will be returning to Turf Moor for the first time since the mid-1960s. It’s a fantastic achievement by Sean Dyche – can you match it?

Brechin City

The 2017/18 season is unlikely to be forgotten by Brechin City fans for a long time. For all the wrong reasons. A record of P 36, W 0, D 4, L 32 and a goal difference of -70 is pretty incredible. Avoiding relegation would be good, but you’ll surely manage them to at least one league victory?

Celtic

There’s plenty of silverware added to the trophy cabinet at Celtic Park this season, but that was expected. Qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League would have been a big achievement. They were certainly unlucky to be drawn in the same group as Paris Saint Germain and Bayern Munich, but maybe your draw in the Champions League will be kinder…

Juventus

Ginaluigi Buffon has had an outstanding career. He oversees a miserly defence and has been a key part in Juventus’ record breaking run of Serie A titles. But the Champions League trophy still eludes him and some of the safest hands in the game will never lift it. Unless you take over at the Old Lady…

Liverpool

Just about any team would love to be able to pick Salah, Fimino and Sane as a front three. However, the Liverpool defence would not necessarily be so high up on many people’s list. Despite a much-maligned defence, they’ve made the Champions League Final; can you?

Paris Saint Germain

The title has been reclaimed, but spending hundreds of millions on Mbappe and Neymar suggests that sights were set higher than domestic success. To win your group and face Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League is incredibly unlucky, but success is expected when so much has been spent. Can you bring the European Cup to Paris?

Real Madrid

Success and failure are easily defined at Real Madrid; winning the Champions League is success and not winning it is failure. They’re in the final again and only Liverpool can stop them winning it for a third consecutive season. With such a clear definition of success, will you be successful?

Shrewsbury Town

At the start of the season, you could get odds of 7/4 for Shrewsbury to be relegated to League 2. They’ve finished the season third, could get promoted to the Championship via the play-offs and were losing finalists in the Checkatrade Trophy. Good luck in getting close to what Paul Hurst has managed.

Sunderland

Two seasons, two relegations and Sunderland will be playing League 1 football next season. The assumption at the start of the season was (generally) they would finish mid-table; are you the one to ensure they do so?

Tottenham Hotspur

For a couple of seasons now, Spurs have been playing good football and amongst the favourites for all domestic trophies. They haven’t won any of them. There’s only so long a side can be a promising one without winning anything; if it doesn’t change soon, players are likely to be looking for moves to clubs where they can win trophies. Can you ensure that Spurs will start the 2018/19 season in a new stadium with silverware behind them?

Leave a comment and let me know which challenge(s) you have taken on and how you’ve done.